Tasters Wanted

I'm working on an idea.

To get a bigger audience for Well Bread! I want to recruit a few product testers, people who will try my new products, give opinions and spread the word.

If you're interested, comment below, at the moment I can't pay you for your opinion, but you can keep the bread, and I'll work out some way of rewarding you (discounting any orders you make or similar).

I will of course have to organise delivery and dates and all the boring stuff, but if there is enough interest, I'll make a start. I'll need a reasonable number to make it worthwhile.

So if your in postcode areas TQ1-5 and are interested, either comment on here, or at

wellbread.brixham@gmail.com

and we'll see what we can sort out.

Serendipity, Cider Bread and Digestive Biscuits

Several cases of Serendipity this week.

I found a recipe in a Nigel Slater book for bread made with Milk and Cider, sounds like my sort of thing I thought, rather eerily I then found a bottle of Bays Cider in the local shop, "buy me" it screamed so I did, and now of course I must marry the two.

Bays, incidentally is a local brewer, the Beers are fantastic so I'm sure the Cider will be. http://baysbrewery.co.uk/

Back to the bread, if you've seen the book you will know it uses Spelt and White flour, with the Milk and Cider to get a distinctive flavour.

Well that was the 5am job today, and after following the recipe (not one of my strong points) I ended up with this,

I think my oven must be on a slope because all my loaves seem to have risen more at one end, while I wait for it to cool I can tell you about my next project.

I'm always looking for a use for my sourdough starter discard, and I found online a recipe for Sourdough Digestive Biscuits that looked like a good way of using it up. Funnily enough I then saw an idea for the same thing on Facebook, and on another website that I hadn't seen before.  I expect I'll keep finding it everywhere now.

Anyhow after all that prompting, I thought I'd better have a go, they came out rather well, maybe a bit more salt next time, but they were so good that I experimented with a few chocolate covered ones as well.

Maybe the chocolate was a bit thick, but who's counting. There's none left so that should tell you something.

The Cider bread has cooled a bit, so its time to take a look, nice open crumb,

and of course a taste, its slightly caramel and sweet, it would be nice with cheese, its a pity you can't smell it from the blog.

So with all the co-incidence, I still haven't done the things I intended to do, but that'll be a job for next week. Unless something better comes along.

Salmon Sandwich

I made a sandwich with Smoked Salmon, Ikea Dill sauce and the Pea and Potato bread, wow it was good.

I will drop the samples round to Millie tomorrow, (Salmon not included)

Projects

I've been busy keeping up with the orders over the last couple of weeks, with that and the day job there's been little time to try something new.

But with three weeks off coming up, the time is ripe for a couple of experiments.

Firstly, I want to perfect the Pea bread,
Then try a cider based recipe I found in a book,
and also experiment with higher hydration.

Looks like a busy holiday then. Keep watching for updates.

Pea Bread, Part 2

After the first attempt, I got comments from all my loyal tasters, (Volunteers always wanted) and implemented two of the more sensible suggestions, more Peas and some fried Potato.

So here it is, the mark 2 Pea Bread in all it's glory,

I just need to run it past the panel and then if all goes well I will release the recipe later this week, of course it might be easier for you just order one direct for your fish finger or tuna sandwiches, prices on request.

By the way, here's the crumb, and you can see the peas and pieces of potato nicely spread out.

A New Flavour

You have my daughter to thank for what comes next. Amy told me that she had a bacon sandwich on Black Pudding and Tomato bread, well it got me thinking. I already make a Sundried Tomato bread, so all I would have to do would be fry up some Black Pudding and Pancetta and incorporate it into the bread.

So I got some Black Pudding and fried it up,

 

crumbling it into pieces. Then I fried Pancetta and mixed it in.

 

Next job was to make the dough and add the mixture,

then roll and cut,

Rise and bake.

I took a sample down to Millie and Me, and was told it was a  "triumph".

 

I also suggested the Pea Bread, (remember that?) with added whole peas and fried potato as the basis of a fish finger sandwich, now I'm experimenting to make it come true. But that's a story for later.